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Pope Francis says the world must unite to stop the "unjust aggression" in Iraq where Sunni militants have targeted the country's minorities.

"In these cases, where there is an unjust aggression, I can only say that it is licit to stop the unjust aggressor," Francis said aboard the papal plane. "I underscore the verb 'stop.' I'm not saying 'bomb' or 'make war,' just 'stop.' And the means that can be used to stop them must be evaluated."

 and other news agencies, who were traveling with Francis from South Korea to the Vatican.
U.S. airstrikes have 

 who have seized large parts of Iraq and unleashed a reign of terror on the country's minorities, including 

, forcing some of them to convert and executing others. But Francis, in his comments Monday, also said that a single nation can't decide what to do in Iraq.


"One nation alone cannot judge how you stop this, how you stop an unjust aggressor," he said, according to the AP. "After World War II, the idea of the United Nations came about: It's there that you must discuss 'Is there an unjust aggression? It seems so. How should we stop it?' Just this. Nothing more."

The AP has more on why these comments are important:

 that Francis emphasized that it's not only Christians who are affected by what's going on in Iraq.
"There are men and women, religious minorities, not just Christians, and they're all equal before God," Francis said.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Religion and Faith

Krishnadev Calamur

Author

Pope Francis says the world must unite to stop the "unjust aggression" in Iraq where Sunni militants have targeted the country's minorities.


Pope says it's OK to 'stop' aggressors in Iraq to protect minorities

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